an important part of engineering is tolerance. in other words, between which two extremes will this material function, and at which point will it fail? previously, when i was an aerospace engineer, ultimate failure was defined as “loss of craft, loss of crew.” if all of the triply redundant systems that we designed failed concurrently or consecutively, the consequences were, to put it bluntly, death and destruction. these days, my experiments in tolerance have to do with the shapes, and the shades of color, of the rocks on our favorite mediterranean beach. is this rock red or reddish brown? is this rock flat enough? is it regular enough? is its color consistent, or striated? the cost of a miscalculation is relatively forgiving: “loss of rock, loss of moment.” both the rock and the moment are precious of course, but it’s good to keep things in perspective.

beach rocks from the mediterranean

sète, france

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